Orca (boat)
The infamous shark fishing vessel Orca was depicted in the film JAWS and as a sunken wreck in Jaws 2. The Amity incident Captained by the misanthropic, eccentric war veteran Quint, Orca was sunk off the coast of Amity following an extended fishing excursion in the summer of 1973. Its dramatic demise was due in part to structural damage resulting from relentless attacks on the boat by a maniacal rogue shark. Although the boat had been designed to seek out and catch sharks, it was ultimately no match for the pursuing predator Quint was hired to catch. Attempting to draw the monster in to the shallows, Orca was eventually over revved and inadvertently scuttled. Orca was crewed on its final voyage by the Amity chief of police, Martin Brody, and the schooled oceanographer from Woods Hole, Matt Hooper. The Amity incident was later immortalized in a film (Jaws) directed by Steven Spielberg in 1974 on Martha's Vineyard, MA, and distributed by Universal pictures in 1975. History As a working boat 'Orca' was small yet dependable, and had been Quint's mainstay since his early days as a lobster fisherman off Nova Scotia. 'Orca' had originally been named 'Warlock' in an ode to warding off the demons that haunted Quint after losing his parents while growing up during the great Irish famine. During the war in the pacific (WW2), while on a return trip to home port after having delivered the atomic bomb, Quint's ship was sunk by a Japanese submarine, and with only a life jacket for floatation, survived an ordeal at sea for several weeks surrounded by swarms of killer sharks. Quint's mission during the war had been so secret, no distress call was sent, and a crew of nearly 1100 were lost. Taking his new found passion and disdain for sharks to the extreme, Quint modified his Nova Scotian lobster boat 'Warlock' into the formidable 'shark seeker' known as ORCA, adding an expanded fly bridge and a more sturdy crow's nest for scouting dorsal fins from a distance. Using painted yellow rain barrels modified for use as ballast kegs, the kegs were set in a track system which could then be tied to harpoon wire fired from a makeshift Greener rifle. Quint used this 'sharking system' to great effect while stationed at the end of a pulpit extending out past the bow. In this way, Quint could therefore readily oversee sharks moving past in close proximity allowing for more precision correlated aims. Legacy After sinking, Orca's wreck was a popular destination for casual divers but was thought to be cursed by the superstitious following the mysterious disappearance of a diver taking photographs in the summer of 1978. The wreck was subsequently raised and utilized for further study by Matt Hooper at the Woods Hole Institute. Remnants were also meticulously researched by visiting occultists and archeologists who firmly believed there was some paranormal connection with the boat and the shark, and that the shark which had attacked swimmers on the Island was likely possessed or a mutation of a great white shark. The boat is believed to still be in a classified area of the institute to this day. Amity Incident: The ORCA It was well known by most Islanders that in general, Chief Brody had been at odds with the mayor thereby casting doubt as to the subsequent police report filed upon his return with Matthew Hooper. The town council steadfastly refused to pay the agreed bounty ($10,000) as promised, claiming there was still no proof the shark had either been caught or killed per the terms of the contract, which they claimed the mayor had reluctantly been coerced into signing. Citing fraud, the Amity town council believed that rather than having been sunk by a shark which had been terrorizing Amity island, the ORCA had merely been scuttled for an insurance claim, and that Quint had merely gone into hiding in collusion with Chief Brody. Film Production: JAWS A boat was built to resemble the actual ORCA for the film adaption of The Amity Incident in 1974. It was later sold to a crew person who worked on the film, then sold back again to Universal Studios after the crew person complained the boat was possibly haunted and had repeatedly sunk without reason. After years serving as a tram attraction center piece of the 'JAWS' attraction at USH, the boat simply disappeared. Reference Operation Orca Category:Boats Category:Objects Category:Destroyed Objects Category:Jaws Category:Jaws 2 Category:1975